Stories by David Webber:

This morning, Chris Anderson announced that Rony Abovitz of the start-up Magic Leap, who’d planned to join us here at TED2015, has cancelled his appearance for, as Chris says, “Reasons unknown.” Up to now, Magic Leap has become known for two things in the tech world: 1) generating hundreds of millions of dollars in investment and […]

Think parents should be able to select their children’s talents and personalities? Or want to run and hide in the woods at the thought of it? Whatever your opinion, it is precisely the kind of question that Julian Savulescu wants you to take seriously. Professor of practical ethics at the University of Oxford, Savulescu thinks […]

Daniel H. Cohen argues for a good argument. In today’s talk, given at TEDxColbyCollege, Cohen asks us to set aside our goal of winning arguments in favor of gaining a greater appreciation for the legitimate points being made by the other person. In an effort to gain more appreciation for that argument, we asked Cohen […]

Forecasting the stock market has a storied past of unfruitful predictions. But in today’s TED Talk, Didier Sornette shares how he and his research team have successfully identified unstable market bubbles and even predicted when they’ll pop. His findings, if accepted, could quite literally change the way we do business, by shifting how banks, traders […]

Tim Exile is at TEDGlobal this week, collecting noise. You see, he’s a UK-based electronic music producer and is putting together a few tracks based on sounds in and around the conference. On Tuesday, he went outside the theater to record the protesters rallying against George Papandreou’s politics. Then, mixing their chants with the words from Papandreou’s […]

Governments’ role in spurring innovation is a controversial one. In rough terms, political debates about public spending usually go something like this: One side argues governments should only spend on the most basic public goods and do whatever they can to keep out of the way of the private sector that grows the economy and […]

Timothy Bartik says that investing in early childhood education is not just good for the children involved — but for communities as a whole. In today’s talk, he offers a detailed look at how preschool education boosts local economies in colossal ways. “Early childhood education can bring more and better jobs to a state and can […]

Well, it’s December 21st, 2012, in EST time zones and, if you’re reading this, the world has not ended. Or, maybe it has and you found the Wi-Fi password to the afterlife? Either way, you now have plenty of time on your hands. Spend some it watching these four doomsday TEDxTalks — some humorous, some horrifying. 6 […]

As a New York Times article put it this morning, “The presidential campaign entered a delicate phase on Tuesday, suddenly becoming a sideshow to the hurricane.” In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, it’s hard to remember that in just a week, Americans will be heading to the polls and, with their presidential selection, answering big questions […]